America – Page 5 – Weary Wretch

Bagram AFB on Mother’s Day

7/2017

I work with one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met. She is married to an Air Force officer and her son is in the Air Force. She was trying her best to ignore Mother’s Day and her children were pestering her to hint at what she wanted or wanted to do for the holiday.

I had distributed a few of the Mother’s Day post to the Mothers that were working this year, but my friend wasn’t one of them. But, the next day she worked and found one of the leftover copies.

She said she laughed her @ss off and thoroughly enjoyed it. So she sent out copies to her children, including the one in the Air Force. She got an e-mail back that said that the Mother’s Day post was such a hit that he, her son, distributed it around the base at Bagram AFB, Afghanistan.

Hell, if it brought one smile, it was a success. Thanks to every Mother and Mother’s Son or Daughter in the service of this Country.

Your smiling, internationally published grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

http://igfiddles.com/wearywretch/mothers-day/

Weary

TSA and the Terrorist

7/2017

I’ll bet you probably could have guessed what the US Transportation Security Administration was intended to do without my giving you this link. (1) And if you are too lazy to read it yourself, I’ll summarize the salient points here.

Mission
Protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.
Vision
Provide the most effective transportation security in the most efficient way as a high performing counter-terrorism organization.
Core Values
Integrity. Innovation. Team spirit.

But read it anyway, it is illuminating. Especially in light (no pun intended) of this report about an 82-year-old woman who got arrested in the Wichita airport for assaulting a TSA officer. (2)

All of this 120 lbs and 5’5″ of lean, mean, fighting machine with 82 years of combat experience was viewed as a threat to the transportation security of the largest superpower in the existence of the world using only her closed fist. See, watching those Bruce Lee films of the 1970s paid off (eg. Fists of Fury 2, 1976).

So, with respect to the Mission, they were able to ensure freedom of movement for the poor lady from the airport to the Sedgwick County jail. The Vision, maybe they succeeded in striking fear in the hearts of terrorists around the world since this made international media and now terrorists will think twice before coming to America. Ya think? And, the Core Values were upheld in that it did take more than one TSA officer to apprehend the 82-year-old woman.

And you wonder why I don’t like to fly.

Respectfully submitted by your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Weary.

Miserly Travel

7/2017

When traveling to vacation spots outside the Continental US, one needs to be very specific in booking your travel. Why I say this can be gleaned from this conversation with the desk clerk at a recent all-inclusive luxury vacation in Puerto Rico.

Hotel desk clerk, “Yes Mr. Ward, we have your reservation right here. You are in room 3126 for 3 nights. If I may ask, will you be needing a bed for your room.”

Me, ” Yeah, of course, I need a bed.”

Hotel desk clerk, “Very good sir, of course, that will be an additional $250 a day. Now did you need a refrigerator for your beverages?”

Me, “Well not if you are going to nickel and dime me for everything.”

Hotel desk clerk, “Of course not sir. Did you want linens for the bed or did you bring your own? They are an additional $25 per day.”

Me, “What?”

Hotel desk clerk, “Yes sir, and I might mention that the light bulbs for the room are an additional $10 each. Guests often use dusk in the evenings for romantic ambiance and avoid the extra charge. Which might I mark you down for, sir?”

Hotel desk clerk, “Sir, SIR, where are you going, sir? We haven’t finished checking you in yet Sir.”

And then there is the tipping.

And a $250 meal made with $4.53 worth of groceries and $6.77 worth of labor.

Hell, driving from the airport to the hotel, I was thrilled to see the price of fuel, $.94 per,,, , uh oops, per liter.

Just saying, travel isn’t all its made out to be, in my book. For what I spent, I could have bought a sailboat and spent 6 fun-filled months getting there and back. Maybe next time.

Vacation memories from your miserly, grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Weary.

The Devil You Don’t Know

7/2017

Disclaimer: This is NOT a political comment but an example of poor financial planning and a lesson learned in life.

OK now. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I owned a 1972 Cheby Nova (spelling intentionally incorrect) with a V-8 engine. My wife would run along beside it with a gas can to make sure we didn’t run out of gas between home and the store 2 blocks away. Well maybe not really, but you get the idea.

A young (to the US) upstart Japanese car company (Subaru), Jimmy (then President), and a lot of the national media strongly urged everyone to ditch their gas guzzlers for a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. Kinda sounds familiar, doesn’t it? “You will save money,” they said.

Young and stupid was I, I traded in the perfectly functional but less than efficient Nova.

The new Subaru did indeed get better fuel mileage. When it ran. Unfortunately, it was one of the first vehicles (at least for Subaru) to have computer control of the engine. It didn’t work too well. In addition, the little 4 cylinder engine didn’t have enough oomph to make the hills of Kansas without downshifting, if there was more than one adult in the vehicle. The car was in the shop almost every week for months. Subaru finally threw in the towel and said, “We don’t know what is wrong and you are on your own. Sue us if you want.” This was before the current impotent Lemon Laws,

I ended up trading the Subaru, on which I still owed a significant amount of the original financed note, for a new Jeep Wagoneer. Loved that Wagoneer, but wish, even now, that I had the Nova and all the money wasted in finance charges, maintenance, lost equity and rental expenses for substitute vehicles. If I had, instead of following this woe-some path, invested in say Walmart, lookout Donald. I’d of been firing people on TV instead of him.

Me thinks what I am saying is consider carefully, the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know.

Your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, who didn’t fall for it the second time around.

Weary.

The US Secrete Service and You

7/2017

The United States Secret Service has put out a bid order for someone to develop computer software (compatible with Windows 8) that can detect whether or not a communication in the social arena is sarcasm or not.

The contract is on a 5-year cycle, essentially giving hackers 5-years to “catch up”. Remember when the iPhone came out. It was touted as un-hackable? It took some 14-year old in NYC 36 hours to hack it. Or something like that.

So the fact that they are experiencing problems determining if a piece of com data is sarcasm or not means they are reading the com data, right? Well, of course they are. Everybody knows that!

And if everybody knows that, why is the news so full of squalk about NSA reading com data?

But wait a minute, the Secret Service? Aren’t they responsible for the President’s and other’s security and financial crimes? Why would they be interested in com data that is 99.9% teenage twits, flicks, sexting and selfies? Maybe they are looking just at the President’s social media participation and not yours?

Nope, the Patriot act added the phrase, “Use of new technology as a means to commit a crime.” to their mission. Rather broad scope, if you ask me.

Or, I guess they are just bored.

Never mind.

Grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Weary.